Mittal family company sells Rs 8,485-crore of Airtel shares in block deals
Indian Continent Investment (ICIL), a Sunil Mittal-led promoter group entity of Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday sold a 0.84% stake, or 51.1 million shares, in India's second-largest telecom carrier through block deals for ₹8,485.11 crore.
Of the shares sold, 12 million were acquired by Bharti Telecom (BTL)-the main promoter-level controlling company of Bharti Airtel-while the balance shares were lapped up by a host of global and local marquee investors including GQG Partners, Fidelity, Lazard, ICICI Prudential MF and SBI Life, according to people familiar with the matter. Mittal family-backed ICIL sold shares at ₹1,660 apiece, as per the block deal data.
Rajiv Jain-led GQG Partners was the top buyer, acquiring 19.9 million shares for ₹3,295 crore. Bharti Telecom bought shares worth ₹2,000 crore. SBI Life Insurance and the National Pension System (NPS) Trust were other major investors, buying shares worth ₹500 crore and ₹450 crore, respectively, as per the block deal data. Other key investors who bought shares worth over ₹100 crore included Vanguard International Value Fund, Reliance Trust Institutional Retirement Trust, India Acorn, Nordea and Melbourne-based AustralianSuper.
A sizeable chunk of the Mittal family-backed promoter entity's stake sale proceeds is likely to be used to finance the Bharti Group's recent 24.5% stake buy in London-based BT Group, formerly British Telecom (BT), said one of the persons, who did not wish to be identified.
In December 2024, the UK government had backed Bharti's near $4 billion
